Tory chairman Spelman in clear over 'nanny on expenses' claim

TORY chairman Caroline Spelman will not be sacked from the shadow cabinet after a long-awaited inquiry into the "nannygate" affair cleared her of serious wrongdoing, party sources say.

Mrs Spelman's position has been in doubt since it was claimed that she used a Commons allowance to pay her nanny Tina Haynes.

Parliamentary Standards Commissioner John Lyon has spent more than six months investigating the case and the controversy has prevented David Cameron from shaking up his frontbench team.

But Conservative sources now say the Lyon inquiry, which is due to report in the next few weeks, has found no evidence of deliberate wrongdoing or a breach of Commons rules. As a result, Mrs Spelman will retain a post within the shadow cabinet.

She is one of the few senior women within the party and Mr Cameron is determined not to hand Labour a "sleaze-related" scalp. Mrs Spelman's staunch support for shadow chancellor George Osborne during his recent troubles over links to a Russian billionaire has been invaluable, insiders said.

"One thing is for sure, Caroline is not being hung out to dry," a source told the Standard.

However, regardless of the outcome of the probe, Mrs Spelman may still be moved to another job and a major shake-up of Conservative Campaigns HQ is expected. Leading contenders for the post of chairman include shadow culture secretary Jeremy Hunt, local government spokesman Eric Pickles and shadow work and pensions secretary Chris Grayling.

Mrs Spelman has insisted all along that Ms Haynes was paid only for secretarial work and her nannying duties were rewarded separately with free board and lodging.

MPs' allowances are only for activities directly related to their jobs. The party chairman has stressed that Ms Haynes, who was her nanny for five years, worked as a constituency secretary for six hours a day between 1997 and 1998.

The arrangement ended when the Conservative Party's chief whip told Mrs Spelman it could be "open to misinterpretation", and she appointed a separate constituency secretary.

Critics have pointed out that Ms Haynes was working at Mrs Spelman's family home in Kent, some 140 miles from her West Midlands constituency.

She began to be paid a proper nanny's salary, but not from the Commons allowance, as soon as she stopped working as a constituency secretary.

Ms Haynes told the BBC's Newsnight last year that she also took occasional phone messages and posted documents in 1997 and 1998.

Mr Lyon originally refused to look at the case as it focused on events from more than seven years ago. He agreed to do so only after Mrs Spelman said she wanted to clear her name.